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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Isa Genzken

Little Crazy Column

2002

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Isa Genzken works with a wide spectrum of materials, and her oeuvre includes sculpture, film, video, installation, painting, and photography. However, the touchstone of her artistic practice has always been sculpture, reflecting her ongoing interest in the connections among art, architecture, and the urban environment. Little Crazy Column and Bill II (WU 2003.0004.0002) are paradigmatic of this interest. Each a slender column reaching upward, they mimic the slick appearance of the modern skyscraper on a miniature scale. Covered with mirrors, holographic foil, neon-colored tape, and, in the case of Bill II, photographs of food taken from magazines, they incorporate cheap, ephemeral, and almost vulgar-seeming material. The mirrors return the gaze of the viewer, turning an encounter with one’s own image into part of the artwork. The effect is one of fluidity and instability that brings modernist architecture back to a human scale and allows for an exchange on equal footing, albeit one that fragments the viewing subjects and fractures the world around them. [Exhibition brochure text, 2013]

  • Artist Isa Genzken (German, b. 1948)
  • Title Little Crazy Column
  • Date 2002
  • Medium Reflective glass and holographic foil on fiberboard support
  • Dimensions unframed | 102 3/8 x 12 3/16 x 12 3/16 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Charles H. Yalem Art Fund, 2003
  • Object number WU 2003.0004.0001

Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/12/2014 - 01/04/2015

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/03/2013 - 09/07/2013

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2011 - 01/09/2012

Models and Prototypes
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 10/25/2006 - 12/31/2006

Contemporary German Art: Recent Acquisitions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/2003 - 04/20/2003

Models and Prototypes 2006

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany 2011

Until April 28, 2003
[with neugerriemschneider Gallery (1994–), Berlin]

April 28, 2003–
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, purchase from the above, Charles H. Yalem Art Fund [1]

Notes:

[1]

WU 2003.0004.0001 object file, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis.

Inscription On side, near bottom, in black ink:

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to Isa Genzken, Bill II, 2001, and Little Crazy Column, 2002 page
2003_0004_0002.tif
Essays

Isa Genzken, Bill II, 2001, and Little Crazy Column, 2002

Grade: University
go to Contemporary German Art: Recent Acquisitions page
no image
Exhibitions

Contemporary German Art: Recent Acquisitions

January 17, 2003–April 20, 2003
go to Models and Prototypes page
no image
Exhibitions

Models and Prototypes

October 25, 2006–December 31, 2006
go to Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany page
A view of a gallery with three walls in view. There is a large, multi-colored canvas on each wall.
Exhibitions

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany

September 09, 2011–January 09, 2012
go to Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection page
no image
Exhibitions

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 03, 2013–September 07, 2013
go to Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art page
no image
Exhibitions

Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art

September 12, 2014–January 04, 2015

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